Cycling

USA Pro Challenge bicycle race sues a major sponsor

Lance Armstrong's confession to using performance-enhancing drugs didn't affect the sponsorship of Colorado's USA Pro Challenge as much as the absent payments of an energy company in Boise, Idaho.

Race organizers, under the plaintiff name Classic Bicycle Racing, filed suit April 10 against Exergy Development Group for $2.5 million, saying that was the amount Exergy agreed to give the race in 2013 as part of a three-year sponsorship deal signed last year.

Pro Challenge CEO Shawn Hunter refused to comment on the lawsuit but did say, despite Exergy's failed payment, sponsorship for his August race will still be up at least 20 percent over last year.

"We're going to have our best sponsorship year ever," Hunter said of his race entering its third year.

Exergy, however, is one of Hunter's major sponsors. It agreed to pay the race $1 million from May 10-Sept. 30, 2012; $2.5 million from Oct. 1, 2012-Sept. 30, 2013; and $2.5 million from Oct. 1, 2013-Sept. 30, 2014.

Exergy failed to make its first sponsorship payment of $500,000 on Sept. 1. After giving a check for $100,000 four days later, it failed to make a second payment of $500,000 on Sept. 15. It also didn't make a payment of $750,000 on Feb. 1, according to the suit.

Exergy, a wind-energy developer, had suspended projects after failing to pay up to $37.9 million for 32 turbines, according to a lawsuit filed by AES Corp., in U.S. District Court in Idaho.

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Hunter has landed other sponsors, not yet named, to counteract the loss of Exergy. And, it turns out, Armstrong's confessions in January that he won his record seven consecutive Tours de France while doping became a nonfactor.

"No one's come out and said, 'We're not going to sponsor your race because of what happened in the past or what happened in the early part of '13,' " Hunter said. "Part of our job is to introduce our sport to potential sponsors, and that's a year-round job. We live with the motto that just when we might be tired of our own message, people are finding out about our sport, or the potential of our event for the first time."

Hunter, who admitted Armstrong's confession "made me take a deep breath," was asked why sponsors should believe in cycling after America's great cyclist in history confessed to doping.

"There's some facts that support the turn (toward cleaner cycling)," he said. "If you look at just performance year after year, a lot of the same stages the times are slower than they were eight to 10 years ago. Also, the sport is doing a much better job of testing.

"We're testing at higher levels and also testing out of competition."

The routes of the week-long race will be revealed this month or the first week in May. The biggest change in the course will be moving the time trial from Denver back to Vail on Aug. 23.

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